Tokyo

Restaurants in Tokyo

Innovation is the trump card of restaurants in Tokyo. All kinds of sea creatures, from sea urchin and crab to eel and stingray, are apt to wind up on your plate. Noodles, from ramen to soba and more, abound.
One of the best restaurants in Tokyo is Nodaiwa. Not far from Edogawa Park, this shop serves some of the best unagi (eel) dishes—so good in fact, that the line often stretches well past the door. If you want to try your hand at Japanese cooking, visit the Tsukiji Fish Market, known as Japan's Kitchen. It's the world's largest seafood market and moves at lightning speed. If you're dedicated, you can wake early to watch the tuna auction get underway at four o'clock in the morning.
For a break from the typical Tokyo restaurant, consider Union Square Tokyo and Pierre Gagnaire à Tokyo. Union Square Tokyo puts a Western spin on traditional dishes in the Tokyo midtown area. Meanwhile, French chef Pierre Gagnaire runs his namesake restaurant on the 36th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel.

Considered one of the finest unagi (freshwater eel) houses in Japan, Michelin-starred Nodaiwa is located in a free-standing, three-story wood and plaster storehouse that was relocated from the country to its present location among the skyscrapers.

The locale has an entire wall of color-coordinated mini sake containers behind its handsome circular bar. Try to order their junmai and daiginjo with bites of pork-cheek yakitori, sautéed sea urchin and watercress, and fugu (blowfish) roe preserved in sake lees.